In the private room, with bright red walls, Sherry Chappell and Joann Hampton lifted up their shirts with smiles on their faces.
“I just want to show everyone,” Hampton said.
After both having breast cancer over ten years ago, Chappell, 47, and Hampton, 46, had mastectomies.
Along with their breasts, they lost their nipples too. The nipples can contain cancerous tissue; so many women have them removed.
What is left is scars and a feeling of loss.
Many women look to doctors to get new nipples tattooed, but the doctors aren’t tattoo artists.
Hampton had hers previously done by a doctor, and she wasn’t happy with them.
They came to Sacred Rites in Bradenton, who offers these tattoos, for free.
When Michael Csanki, 24, and Matthew Haines, 24, bought Sacred Rites in 2015, they knew they wanted to do something to help people. A classmate of Haines suggested the tattoos, and they ran with it.
Csanki and Haines teamed up with Dr. Alissa Shulman, a plastic surgeon in Sarasota, and she recommends people when they are healed enough, to get the tattoos. As long as they have approval from a doctor, women are ready to be tattooed.
In addition to being co-owner, Csanki performs the tattoos.
“He was careful, professional, and compassionate,” Chappell said.
Sherry Chappell and Joann Hampton pose in the room where they got their tattoos. Photo by Marla Korenich
Many doctors, makeup artists, and tattoo artists across the country charge hundreds to a thousand dollars for these tattoos that take Csanki 30 minutes to complete.
“There are places charging these women $700 for a couple of nipple tattoos, which is price gouging and preying on women who are at a vulnerable point in their lives,” Haines said.
Haines hopes offering these tattoos, other shops will feel the pressure to do the same.
“We have a friend that traveled and paid $1000 for her tattoos, and ours look better,” Chappell said.
Haines wants these women to know that they don’t need to spend their last dollar on these tattoos, and they have options, at their shop.
Chappell and Hampton said these tattoos have helped them feel normal again.
“When I looked in the mirror, all I would see is scars. I don’t see them anymore,” Hampton said.